Together Again
by OT6AllTheWay-BCNSTT
Summary: She reflects on her life and her friends. Mentions character death


**Together Again **

As I sit on the wooden chairs not caring that my back aches and my foot is falling asleep Nick Stokes words flow through my head. "Please stay as a team because even though I am gone doesn't mean you guys should split up, so please stay together as long as possible." You see Nick Stokes died four and half years ago and everyone did exactly that. My name is Catherine Willows and I am the last CSI from the original group still alive.

I'll start at the beginning. Nick Stokes was the first one and it was exactly 4 and half years ago. Because Chris Angle was really mad at the lab he decided to set up a fake crime scene with dead animal parts posing as humane parts. Grissom gave out the assignments like normal and handed Warrick the "crime scene". Instead he and Nick decided to rock, paper, scissor to see who got it, the more interesting one. By "luck" Nick won it and headed over. An hour had passed and we had not heard from Nick. We weren't that worried until the tapes came. The package was for Grissom and when he opened it up there was videotape and a cassette. After making sure he was wearing gloves and not contaminating the tapes he played the cassette first. Seconds later a voice we later identified as Chris's filled the room saying he had Nick and that we better hurry up and find him. Of course we then switched to the other one and found out it was a live feed to Nick. We found him lying unconscious in a glass coffin BURIED ALIVE! We knew he couldn't hear us but as hours passed the person watching him would talk to him telling him we would find him while every one else tried to find his location. I especially thought that it couldn't get worse until the glass started cracking under the pressure Nick was causing kicking and punching trying to get out. Then fire ants found the cracks and join Nick in his coffin. The worse part was they were eating him alive. That's what helped Grissom because fire ants only were found one place in Nevada. Sara, Grissom, Greg, Jim, Warrick and I along with ten cop cars rushed to him. Only to find we didn't make it in time. He had a tape recorder with him and when he knew his time was up he recorded something for the lab and for his family. He told us not to blame ourselves especially Warrick and to please stay as a team. Even in his last breath he was looking out for us and making sure we were happy.

My mind drifts back to the sermon and I turn my head to a now eighteen year old and more mature Lindsey saying goodbye silently to the last member of her " family". I hold her close and she turns and starts crying on my shoulder. For some reason that reminds me of Grissom and Jim's funerals.

They died on the some day at a shoot out. Grissom was the only one left to respond the call with the rest of us already at a scene. I was the first one back and knowing that Gil was gone and nothing else to do I turn on the news. It was talking about a major shoot out when the killer returned to the scene hoping to clean up, but had ran into the cops. That's when he pulled out his guns with the cops ding the same. There were 4 causalities. I didn't know that they included Gil and Jim until I was called to Doc Robbins and ran into Sara and Greg. We were curious to as why we were called together even though we were working two different cases. We walk into the Autopsy room to see Warrick and David standing around two people. We still didn't know what happened until they saw us and stepped back. There was Gil, my mentor and friend, lying besides Jim, who has always been there when I needed him. They told us Jim shot the guy to stop him when the guy shot Jim at the same time and a stray bullet that went through the side of the house hit Gil. For a second time in two years we had two more funerals. I was worried about Lindsey because she took it hard for Nick but Gil was a like a dad she never had, and Jim like an uncle, but she stayed strong and I was proud of her.

The third person was Warrick who died of internal bleeding a year after Gil and Jim. This time it had nothing to do with being a CSI. He was heading home when a drunk driver hit his side of the car. He was rushed of to the hospital when a bystander saw it happen. That's when Sara, Greg and I were called to the hospital. We had to wait four hours before we were told anything. We were told that he had sever head trauma and was most likely brain dead but they would know more tomorrow. We sat by his bed all night hoping it was all a dream when the doctor came in and told us what we all feared. Knowing Warrick wouldn't want to be a vegetable we took him off life support that night.

A month later Greg left the team. He was driving to a scene when he passed an ally and saw a gang beating up someone. He decides to be a hero and slowly drives in the ally making as much noise possible and everyone but one guy runs away. The guy advances towards Greg. To scare him Greg steps on the gas then the brake a second later but it was to later and he hit the guy. That's when the rest of the gang comes back. After dragging him out of the car they continue their work on Greg. Sara and I found him three hours later when another bystander saw Greg and the two other guys. The people we had to use as replacements never said anything but I would hear them talk when they didn't think Sara and I were listening. They didn't understand that Sara and I were they only ones left out of our family we have known for years. At his funeral Sara and I made a pack to stay together even if we bit each other's heads off daily. Which we did practically every day.

Then a year and five months later Sara leaves. She was kidnapped by the person we called the Miniature Killer because she left miniatures of the crime. When Gil was still alive we found she was Natalie Kousher. And that she worked for Janitorial in the lab. Also when Gil was alive Natalie had blamed Gil for killing the only man she ever lived so she kidnapped Sara, but we had found her in time and thought it would be over with Natalie behind bars. Sadly we were wrong. Later I found out she got out on good behavior and came back for Sara. She must of heard about the team dying and thought it would be easier because she didn't hide the evidence as well as last time. The difference from last time to now was last time we were searching for a sister or daughter. Now they were just searching for a fellow CSI. I don't care what Griss always said emotional involvement can be a good thing.

So here we are at Sara funeral and I can't but think that if I had tried harder the team would still be here. Then the cloudy skies that have been looming over Nevada for a unusually long time cleared up as if they heard my thoughts and were telling my it was their time to go and that I shouldn't blame myself. I smile and squeeze my daughters' shoulder knowing that when my time comes I'll get to see my friends again. I was nearing my fifty-fifth birthday and for once I loved the idea of getting older.


End file.
